With more than two million page views and more than 4,500 items, this blog provides news and commentary on public policy, business and economic issues related to the $3 billion California stem cell agency, officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM). David Jensen, a retired California newsman, has published this blog since January 2005. His email address is djensen@californiastemcellreport.com.

Friday, January 23, 2015

For the second month in a row, the California stem cell
agency, which sits on top of $3 billion in taxpayer cash, is playing a mystery
game with the public.

Coming up next Thursday is a meeting of the 29-member board
of the agency. These sessions are the most important public events involving
the agency, which operates outside of normal state oversight. They deserve full
transparency.

Without it, affected parties -- not to mention the people
who pay the $6 billion total bill (including interest) for the stem cell
research – do not have a genuine opportunity to comment and make suggestions about
matters that involve their livelihoods and organizations.

The agenda containing the item was posted last Saturday on the agency's Web site. The agency has not
posted anything further on the matter and has not responded to a query five days ago seeking more information.

Training issues have been a subject of considerable concern
and interest in the stem cell community, both at the state college level, which
has received little of the agency’s cash, and universities and research
institutions.

Susan Baxter, executive director of the California
State University’s system-wide program for biotechnology, said,

“Despite the Great Recession, Bridges graduates have
succeeded in landing jobs and gaining admittance to graduate and medical
schools at much higher rates than peer groups.”

Does the training agenda item refer to the concerns of Baxter, Loring and the others? It could be a reference to the agency's high school training effort or
something else entirely. It is totally unclear and unnecessarily so.

If the agency is fulfill its promise of maximum
transparency, it should post ample background material on matters to be
discussed when it posts the agenda 10 calendar days ahead of upcoming meetings.
In the absence of that, however, it would have taken only five minutes or less
to write a line specifying which training programs are up for consideration.

In addition to the mystery about the training programs, not
to be found is information about proposed changes in the agency’s loan program.
Those are scheduled to be approved next Thursday, only three business days from
today. The changes likely will have a significant impact on businesses. A board subcommittee was scheduled to consider them on Monday, but that meeting has been cancelled for unknown
reasons. The agency has not responded to a query on when the session will be
rescheduled, but presumably it will happen before the board meeting on
Thursday.

Last month, the agency also created a similar mystery. It
involved what turned out to be a $50 million program that deserved more timely
attention from affected parties and the public.

In years past, the agency was infamous for failing to post
material for its meetings in a timely fashion. Even board members sometimes
complained about not having information. Sometimes meetings were postponed.

Since Jonathan Thomas became chairman in 2011, the situation
has improved. Randy Mills, the new president of the agency, is stressing "clarity" in what the agency does. However, the mysteries of the
past two months do not auger well. The agency can and should do better.

About Me

The California Stem Cell Report is the only nongovernmental website devoted solely to the $3 billion California stem cell agency. The report is published by David Jensen, who worked for 22 years for The Sacramento Bee in a variety of editing positions, including executive business editor and special projects editor. He was the primary editor on the 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning series, "The Monkey Wars" by Deborah Blum, which dealt with opposition to research on primates. Jensen served as a press aide in the 1974 campaign and first administration of Gov. Jerry Brown. (Time served: two years and one week.) He writes from his sailboat on the west coast of Mexico with occasional visits to land. Jensen began writing about the stem cell agency in 2005, noting that it is an unprecedented effort that uniquely combines big science, big business, big academia, big politics, religion, ethics and morality as well as life and death. The California Stem Cell Report has been identified as one of the best stem cell sites on the Internet. Its readership includes the media (both mainstream and science), a wide range of academic/research institutions globally, the NIH and California policy makers.